416 L1 transfer in L2 word formation Marina Tzakosta University of Crete 1 Introduction Compounding is a word formation processes together with inflection and derivation. The product of compounding is a word structure consisted of two major constituents each of which belong to the category of either a N(oun), an A(djective), a V(erb) or a P(reposition). Cross-linguistic studies have revealed that the majority of compounds are right-headed, i.e. the rightmost compound constituent carries the important grammatical characteristics of the newly formed word (Selkirk 1982). 1 In other words, the rightmost constituent determines the phonological, morphological, syntactic and semantic features of the compound. Compounding has been extensively dealt with theoretically for Greek and other languages (Becker 1992, for German, Booij 1992, 2002a, 2002b for Dutch, Kiefer 1992, for Hungarian, Anastassiadis-Simeonidis 1983, 1996 Αναστασιάδη-Συμεωνίδη 1986, 1996, Ράλλη 1996, 2005, Ralli 1992, 2002, Ralli 2003a, b, 2005, Revithiadou 1995, for Greek). However, only recent studies focus on topics concerning the learning and teaching of compounding (cf. Agathopoulou 2003) as well issues concerning compound perceptibility and performance in language disorders (cf. Jarema et al. 1999). In this study, we cross-examine the capacity of Greek native speakers and German L2 learners of Greek to form compound words placing emphasis on, first, the internal structure of compounds, second, issues regarding headedness, third, the relation holding between the compound elements and, fourth, the status of the linking vowel in compound formation. The remainder of the present study is organized as follows: section 2 describes the research methodology adopted for the carry-out of our experimental task, while sections 3 and 4 present the main characteristics of Greek compounding and the results of the experimental task with Greek native speakers. Respectively, sections 5 and 6 discuss compounding in German and the results of the experimental task with the German L2 learners of Greek. Section 7 concludes the paper. 2 Research methodology The data used for this study were collected through an off-line experimental task which took the shape of two questionnaires filled in by the subjects. T(est) 1 investigates the formation of existing Greek compounds while T(est) 2 assesses the formation of novel, i.e. non-existing, compounds. Novel compounds are morphologically possible but semantically vague or ambiguous forms. To give an example, the data in (1a) comprises an acceptable Greek compound at the morphological and semantic level. (1b), 1 On the relation between headedness and inflection see also Booij 1997, 2005.